BATFE, Firearm Importation & Federal Firearm Law Reform
Among its duties, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (BATFE) monitors firearm manufacturers, importers and dealers for compliance with record-keeping requirements; conducts traces on the commercial paths of individual firearms at the request of law enforcement agencies; interprets firearm importation law; and administers transfers of firearms regulated by the National Firearm Act of 1934.
The BATFE was used by the Clinton administration to reduce the number of firearm dealers, and by the administrations of presidents G. H. W. Bush and Clinton to restrict “assault weapons” by misinterpreting firearm importation law. The agency’s tracing data, sometimes useful in identifying persons involved in illegally trafficking firearms, have been mischaracterized by gun control supporters in the context of their campaigns against “Saturday Night Specials” and “assault weapons,” and in favor of making state gun laws more restrictive.
BATFE has been widely criticized for its role in the “Ruby Ridge” and “Waco” tragedies, and Operation Fast and Furious, in which the agency knowingly allowed firearms to be bought by straw purchasers and other traffickers, and thereafter smuggled from the United States to Mexico, where they made their way to violent drug cartels.
Friday, March 28, 2014
As we recently reported, U.S. Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.), sponsor of the federal "assault weapon" and "large" magazine ...
Friday, March 21, 2014
Saying they’ve been stonewalled for a year, the House’s top investigator sent a subpoena Thursday demanding the Bureau ...
Friday, March 21, 2014
U.S. Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.), sponsor of the federal "assault weapon" and "large" magazine "ban" of 1994-2004, is ...
Friday, February 28, 2014
BATFE agents lost at least 49 agency-issued firearms between 2009 and 2013, according to a new report by ...
Friday, February 21, 2014
The number of firearms manufactured in the U.S. for sale to American customers hit an all-time high in ...
Monday, January 27, 2014
Congress recently called for probes into how ATF conducted undercover operations in Oregon and elsewhere across the country. ...
Wednesday, January 22, 2014
Two congressional committees are preparing to hold hearings on botched ATF undercover storefront stings in Milwaukee and across ...
Friday, January 10, 2014
Calling the ATF's tactics appalling, alarming, disturbing and "almost unimaginable," congressional members on Thursday slammed the agency for ...
Tuesday, December 17, 2013
Rep. Darrell E. Issa is vowing to keep up the heat in the investigation into Operation Fast and ...
Monday, December 16, 2013
A national disability rights group on Friday ripped ATF operations that used mentally disabled people and then charged ...
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